Maurizio Sarri warns Lazio cannot continue to ‘throw points away’ by fumbling leads after the 1-1 draw with Verona and claims Sergej Milinkovic-Savic performed a ‘miracle’ to put up with the referee.
The Biancocelesti had the opportunity to leapfrog rivals Roma and climb into third place with a victory at the Stadio Bentegodi.
Instead, Pedro saw his sensational curler cancelled out by a Cyril Ngonge header for a 1-1 draw, which left them fourth in the Serie A standings.
As we’ve seen so often at Lazio over the last couple of seasons, they seemed to zone out straight after the restart and risked conceding another, rescued by the woodwork and Ivan Provedel.
“It was a difficult match, as anyone could’ve predicted, as Hellas make opponents play rough and they are on fine form recently too,” said Sarri in his press conference.
“We had the right approach, except for the first 15 minutes of the second half. I don’t think we lost concentration, that would be disrespectful, because if you lose concentration in a game like this then you concede four goals. The team played well overall.
“It is difficult to find a precise cause why we struggle when taking the lead, but we need to do something different, because we are throwing points away like this. I told the team that I was happy with the performance, but we must reflect on what is becoming a real problem.”
Lazio did manage to regroup and push to the final whistle for a potential winner, denied only by a reaction save on Mattia Zaccagni’s back-heel flick.
“I was never afraid of losing the game, as we wanted to win it at the end. We always have to play with the same spirit.”
Sarri was also critical of referee Giovanni Ayroldi after the 1-1 draw at the Stadio Bentegodi, congratulating Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
“That was a miracle from Milinkovic, because if I was on the end of two or three of the decisions against him, I wouldn’t have seen out the game. He managed to avoid even getting booked.”
And who’s fault is that Sarri, eh?